About Us
Emma Ihaia
Principal Economist
Based in Whakatū Nelson, Emma Ihaia specialises in competition analysis and regulatory economics, with 25 years of experience in this field.
As a Principal Economist for Link Economics, Emma has been retained as an expert in the context of regulatory investigations and consultations, and has prepared competition assessments for merger clearances, authorisations, and market studies.
She has also provided expert evidence for legal proceedings. Emma has advised clients in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and the Pacific Islands.
David de Boer
Principal Economist
David’s focus is regulatory economics and the application of regulatory systems in the real world, especially as these apply to infrastructure entities.
He has advised on regulatory determinations, the establishment and periodic review of regulatory regimes, regulatory price setting approaches and submissions to regulators and government bodies on a range of regulatory matters.
David has also undertaken market studies, advised on mergers, and has published research on regulation and market performance. David is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington.
Dr Eric Kodjo Ralph
Network Associate
Eric is an economist with expertise in regulation, antitrust and public policy. Eric has worked in a range of industries, notably telecommunications, but also electricity, natural gas, broadcasting, insurance, airline services, harbor towage and railways. Over the past 15 years, he has held senior positions at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) where he was deeply involved in a substantial number of major regulatory proceedings and various high-profile mergers including including Comcast-TWC-BHN, and Charter-TWC-BHN. Eric also has extensive private consultancy experience, advising clients on large merger and acquisition cases and on market conduct assessment.
Sophie Mills
Economist
Sophie conducts economic analysis for clients, including surveying methodologies for setting efficient network prices, preparing electricity network pricing models, and researching the role of economic analysis in merger assessment.
Sam Lanigan
Research Assistant
Sam provides research support for Link Economics projects, including collecting and analysing data. He has assisted our team with price surveys, extracting and processing data, and the review of financial models. He is currently a second-year student at the University of Canterbury in Ōtautahi Christchurch where he is studying Financial Engineering and Mathematics.
Riley Secker
Research Assistant
Riley assists our team in constructing and review pricing models, reviewing economic literature, and analysing datasets. He has contributed to Link Economics projects on electricity network pricing and the analysis of data for benchmarking exercises.
Riley is currently a second-year student at the University of Canterbury in Ōtautahi Christchurch where he is studying Finance and Economics.
Michelle Landreth
Administration Manager
Michelle has joined us as our administration manager and has been assisting with our accounts, invoicing and payroll. She also supports with data entry, online research, proof reading, and keeping us all on our toes!
Associates
Link Economics coordinates with other consultants and academics to assemble a team that best addresses its clients' project requirements.
Dr A. Sathyendran (Sathy)
Cellular Communication Specialist
Sathy is a Cellular Communication Specialist with over twenty five years’ experience in the cellular industry. He has provided advice on:
- Spectrum Policy
- Spectrum auctions,
- Technology strategies and
- Cellular technologies.
Sathy has extensive experience working with both mobile operators as well as regulators.
Dr. Anthony (Tony) G. Webber
Economist and a Quantitative Modelling Expert
Dr. Anthony (Tony) G. Webber is an economist and a quantitative modelling expert. These skills have led him to be engaged as an expert witness across a variety of court cases. He has held academic positions at the University of New England, the University of Wollongong, the University of NSW, the University of Sydney, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Technology Sydney.
Tony was the chief economist at Qantas from 2004 to 2011 and has operated an aviation research consultancy over the past 12 years.